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you don't decide when vegetables reach the peak of perfection. the vegetables do. at green giant, we pk vegetables only when they're perfect. then freeze them fast so they're are as nutritious as fresh. [ green giant ] ho ho ho. ♪ green giant >> steve: it is indeed. joining us -- join us tomorrow. linda he have beens will join us, bob massi and john stossel. >> gretchen: have a fantastic day, everyone. >> brian: bye. bill: good morning, everybody.

want to share a special moment with you now. a final farewell to the faithful. pope benedict xvi addressing an enormous crowd in morning in st. peter's square for his final time. we say good morning you. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom". martha: good to see you, bill. i'm martha maccallum. what a emotional and historic moment we saw play out today. it has been 600 years since the last time a pope made this decision to step down. more than 150,000 people filed into st. peter's square to be part of this moment to witness it live. pope benedict going along in the pope mobile there. he blessed some of the children in attendance. there is some of that. boy, a lot to unfold. bill: over the next 24 hours, martha, he will be a former pope. 8:00 local time tomorrow on thursday, the pontiff taking, look at those pictures. reflecting on the big moment as his life and his church

enter uncharted waters. >> translator: the words that resonated in my heart have been, lord, why are you asking me? it is a great burden that you have placed on my shoulders. but if you ask me, i will accept. certain that you will guide me, even with all the weaknesses i have. whoever takes the ministry of st. peter upon himself does not have the any privacy. he belongs totally and always to everyone and to the whole church. the private dimension is completely taken away from his life. bill: you wonder what sort of privacy he will have now. want to go live to vatican city inside of rome, italy, where father jonathan morris, fox news religion contributor. he is live in the vatican. that is place where he spent many years working. father, hello to you. explain the message from the pontiff today. >> sure, bill. the whole issue of his

privacy that he brought up is very interesting pause it is true that he was saying, after i retire, right, coming up tomorrow as you said at 8:00 p.m. rome time, i'm not just going to be a private citizen of the world anymore where i can go as he said and give conferences or talks. he said, no, i will always be the one who was pope. it is now pope emeritus. he said the way he will be a pope emeritus by being in a monastery and convent, making reference to st. benedict, who was a monk. he said that is the type of life i will lead. quiet in prayer, doing service to the church, instead of going back to be what he was before he became pope. very interesting. there will not be a pope making commentary on the new pope, words and actions. bill: i think when we think about his words we all have an interpretation for what his message is, you

especially. when you think about this comment, i've had moments of joy and light but also moments that have not been easy he said today, moments of turbulent seas and rough winds, how do you read that, father? >> well, you know, certainly there's a lot of joys that come with being a shepherd of all the people, all the people who come to see him at the big audiences, all of that i'm sure is joyful for him but also there has been a great amount of difficulties within the church. we think about when he first took over in 2005. the sex abuse scandal he had to deal with and he dealt with it pretty quickly. tell you a very personal story. i was part of a religious order at the time whose founder turned out to be a real sociopath. a month after pope benedict became pope and he immediately acted and publicly disciplined this priest. those are hard things to do. think about that. think about the scandal as it is known now, his own

butler giving things to the press. there has been a great deal of conflict between traditionalists and the church and so he's had to struggle with these things. that is hard. he did it at the age of 78. now he is 85. imagine your grandfather taking on something like this. certainly it has been a very hard thing for him. you know what? i think this is a act of humility on his part. he said while i could stay in power i will give it up to somebody else because the way the papacy works in these times of fast communication, we need somebody of sound health of mind and body who can act quickly. he said i just don't think i could do it. so the best thing to do is step aside. bill: and he clearly enjoyed the moment today and that was obvious from his own expressions, father, as you that there. jonathan morris, thank you, live in rome, italy, seeing our coverage as we'll see him in the coming weeks. thank you. here's martha. martha: in attendance at st.

peters, many of the cardinals who will choose the next pope, including no new york cardinal timothy dolan, the head of u.s. conference of bishops. he spoke to reporters before he left for rome. >> on thursday we will with him for a while. that i look forward to. that will drive him home literally, to say good-bye. then i think it will begin to sink in that what are we here for? that is going to be awesome. martha: always very plain spoken. cardinal timothy dolan expressing his enthusiasm for what lies ahead of him as he heads to rome. they will begin the meetings on monday we are told you about a spokesman for the vatican says there is no way of knowing how long they will want to meet before they set the date for the conclave to begin. so we're still a few steps to go in this whole process as we get closer. bill: my bet they will move fast but we'll see. it is their call. the conclave is the assembly of cardinals who will pick benedict's successor. 11 american cardinals among the electors in the

conclave. the prime meaning from latin, any place a room that could be locked with a key we hear. the cardinals will go to the sistine chapel twice a day to vote. only cardinals under the age of 80 can vote. they keep voting until a vote of 2/3 is reached. the hope that that begins before easter which is the 31st of march. martha: probably by the 17th. bill: very well be. martha: that is the goal. we'll see how quickly they move along here. it will be fascinating to watch all of this, really since the 15th century there has not been a pope who resigned. so this is an unprecedented situation. we're watching all of this of course with a lot of anticipation. the romantic, the catholic faithful watching all of this closely and they are many. over the past century the number of catholics around the world more than tripled. you hear so much about the declining church in this world but the number of catholics more than tripled from an estimated 291 million in 1910 to nearly

1.1 billion catholics today. some 75 million of those catholics live in the united states. americans make up about 7% of all the catholics in the world. huge growth in africa and in china. that's why you see at least africa on the list of places -- [inaudible] a little over 72 hours now before the mandading cuts take e known as the sequester back here at home in our dome in washington, d.c. this morning. $85 billion in across-the-board cuts to the federal budget are about to kick in. several lawmaker including republican senator tome coburn have put forward a number of solutions that they say would make it easier to handle these cuts. neither the republicans or white house have agreed to any compromise on this thing. bill? bill: 48 hours, martha. martha: exactly. bill: we have numbers based on spending from the federal government. starting now in 2012, this

is in trillions of dollars now. otherwise interpreted as thousands of billions. there are about 3.5, 3.6 trillion dollars in spending for 2012. under current law if you forecast that out over the next nine or ten years, the spending go to 5.5 trillion. the red line is the only amount of the sequester that is being considered. the green is still spending guaranteed under current law. gives you a bit of different per speculative right now -- perspective what they're talking about and debating on the spending in washington. martha: thai, bill. amazing looking at that chart. as washington struggles to reach a deal to rein in spending in the past year $37,000 was added to our debt every single second. think about that. $37,000 per second added to the debt. that is how you get numbers spinning quickly on the chart there. stuart varney joins me, anchor of "varney & company"

on the fox business network. good morning stuart. >> good morning, martha. we knew it was bad but this bad? in the time it took me to say that we added $120,000 to the deficit. let me give you some really scary numbers, break this down by the treasury by the way. irv second as you said we add $37,000 to the deficit. every minute, $2.2 million. every hour, $136 million. and every day, $3.2 billion. in the time it has taken me to say this, we're roughly a half million dollars more in debt. now yesterday in congress at a meeting of the house financial services committee there was a hearing. two democrats wanted to remove the debt clock from the proceedings, get rid of it, cover it up, take it away, they did not want to see it, maxine waters, steve ellison called it a political prop. they do not want to see the rapid run up in the debt. >> it is just a fact. it is a fact of life and it is surprising that they

object to having it there. you would think, you know, in many ways it is a helpful reminder for the work that is cut out for them on capitol hill. you know, but when you hear the president talk about the debt, he always says he wants to cut the debt. but sometimes he says it in sort of an offhand way. sure we want to do that. that is something on our to-do list. but his critics would say, you know, he is not serious about it at all when you look at his moves with regard to entitlement programs certainly. bill: look what he is threatening if we do go through with this miniscule cut. if we just cut 2% from the overall spending budget. by the way, most of the impact of that will come next year and some of it will come overseas. the president says you do that you lose 750,000 jobs, kids don't get vaccinated, airport traffic delays, the to forecast severe weather will be impaired, border security will be impaired. it is a long, long list of armageddon if we cut a tiny

fraction of the overall budget. will we get serious attacking $37,000 worth of extra debt per second? the answer is no. martha: mitch mcconnell said he would be for giving the white house discretion how the cuts are made if he doesn't like the way they are cut and they could make a move. they don't seem to be interested on that option at least right now. >> martha, i have to tell you real fast, the "wall street journal" says in the sequester law the president already has the power to decide where the cuts are going to be. he deliberately making them painful. that is what the journal says. already got that power of discretion. martha: political or practical? stuart, thank you so much. bill: big day there. i mean that clock, 16.6 trillion now. first time we've seen it. mark that down. house speaker john boehner is calling for the senate so get off its, rear end. reaction from democratic senator ben cardin is our guest. he is on the senate finance committee. he joins us live later on

"america's newsroom". martha: that will be interesting. we're just getting started in "america's newsroom." one of the most respected journalists in the world slaps president obama for, quote, a kind of madness i have never seen in a long time. who is that? we'll tell you in a moment. bill: a hockey coach with seriously unsportsmanlike conduct. this guy trip ad player after a game. the kid is like 12. he will have some time to sit around and think about that. martha: oh. in hockey, i'm shocked. i can't believe that. how about this, paralyzed by a monster storm. snowdrifts four feet high, prompting strong warnings for drivers to stay off the road. look at that airplane. that is not going anywhere fast. >> it is really bad out there. >> kind of wet. you have to keep the wipers going and watch out for the trucks. >> it is packing snow. so it's like, yeah, it's not very pleasant. this is the opposite of subliminal advertising... there's no subtext... just tacos. yeah, it's our job to make you want it.

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♪ . martha: great song, right? a group of texas retailers are now suing the city of austin because they want to ban plastic bags in that city. it is supposed to help reduce plastic waste. city leaders argue the bags can be recycled. the ban is expected to go into effect march 1st. a lot of things going into effect march 1st. the boys, the country ising chaing. city says it wants to help retailers. bill: new comments this morning from one of washington's most respectedders blasting president obama's decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier in the persian gulf. bob woodward saying in an interview, quote, under the constitution the president is commander-in-chief and deploys the force. we now have the president going out because of a piece of paper and this agreement, i can't do what i need to do to protect the country. that is the kind of madness that i have not seen in a

long time. erick erickson, editor-in-chief of redstate.com, fox news contributor. good morning to you. a kind of madness i have not seen in a long time. what did you think when you heard that from the woodward? >> it is fascinating for bob woodward to say this, to come out be a pundit to some degree when he has been objective reporter or portrayed like that in a very long time. it suggests that is seeping into the journalistic corps in washington the way it wasn't before the election. the president seems to be best getting president elected and isn't very good governing and is getting worse. bill: what woodward explained about the mad never for a long time is this. can you imagine ronald reagan saying oh by the way i can't do this because of some budget document or george w. bush saying, you know, i'm not going to invade iraq because i can't get aircraft carriers i need. or even bill clinton saying i will not attack saddam

hussein intelligence headquarters as he did when clinton was president because of some budget document. go ahead. >> really is profound how the president has steeped into this fear-mongering on the sequestration which was by the way his idea. you can say, as i was, talking to james carville's class down at tulane last night. the he is saying the president came up with sequestration, he was negotiating with hostage takers it was the best he could do. it was his idea. to go so far as he has woodward is right. the president doesn't being held accountable for what he himself did. bill: when woodward talks about the aircraft carrier, doesn't that give you a better glimpse what the president's priorities are? you can make the case he has wanted to cut the pentagon budget since talking the whew house 4 1/2 years ago. >> he was wanted to cut the pentagon since he was a state senator in illinois. he is getting his way. the left is very happy from sequestration. there are reports saying hey, we're finally cutting the

defense department. as iran advances towards nuclear weapons, north korea running tests on nuclear weapons may or may not be for iran you don't want to signal to iran, hey, we're not sending aircraft carriers to the persian gulf because i negotiated something i don't like. this is very poor leadership skill. bill: what speaker bain are said to cbs and scott pelley last night he believes the white house is playing games. we'll get into that with rand paul in about 30 minutes. stuart varney was talking about "the wall street journal" report this morning saying that, even with the cuts, across the board the way they are stacked against the defense department the president still has authority as commander-in-chief to administer these cuts. is that true? >> it is. you know, everyone keeps talking about sequestration being a plupt object instead after scalpel. no, it is not a blunt object. the president decided to make it a blunt object to score political points to scare people getting away from it and to ignore the fact it was his idea. bill: we'll see whether or not he was right and works

in his favor or not. thank for your time. good to see you out of georgia today. martha. martha: as we heard tensions are pretty high in washington these days but the president says he is not interested in spin, not interested in the blame game at this point. but his critics say if that's so, he should stop picking on the quote, so-called, well-off and well-connected that is a favorite phrase of late. fair and balanced debate coming up on that. bill: you heard of road rage. this guy takes it to a whole new level. ever feel like this? martha: i have. bill: every act like that? martha: no. bill: flipping out at an airport. what caused the scene and what he is saying about it today. martha: i love this and didn't know where to start. used a contractor before at angie's list, you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. no company can pay to be on angie's list, so you can trust what you're reading. angie's list is like having thousands of close neighbors where i can go ask for personal recommendations.

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bill: we now have an update on this man in china. now officially apologizing after his airport meltdown went viral. this is the security footage

from the terminal. martha: uh-oh. bill: this is just part of it now. this is just a little glimpse into what this guy was feeling. traveling with his wife and two kids, apparently he missed two consecutive flights. so he is about to board, when he learned he missed the second flight. smashing the computers. martha: he drew a big crowd. everybody is like what is going on over there? bill: taking the care a la world wrestling federation. airport starve is ducking out of the way. he said he is sorry right now. you can believe it after watching something like that. martha: haven't you wanted to do that in an airport though? i reserved this ticket many months ago. i'm sorry there is no room on the plane. you will have to wait, right? no wonder, right? i get it. it is a big day today at the supreme court as a case is about to get underway that talks about a key provision in the voting rights act of 1965 shannon bream is at the high court. what is at stake here in

this case? >> reporter: the purpose of the voting rights act was essentially to stop discrimination against minority voters. meaning if you had a past history of discrimination you have to come to the department of justice or a federal court here in washington to preclear any changes you make. things to voting districts, to voting times. shelby county, alabama, come here to say, listen a lot has changed in 50 years. we cleaned up our act and essentially we shouldn't be forced to live under these conditions where we're treated differently than other parts of the country. here is a bit from their brief and argument. they say sections 5 and 4-b of the voting rights act accomplished their and encroachment on 10th amendment rights and constitutional principle of equal sovereignty is no longer appropriate. they're saying we remedied these things. it is time to be free of the voting rights act. from the crowd, there is a lot of interest. it is a hotly debated contest, martha. martha: indeed it is. it is a hugely controversial issue. there are those who say the voting rights act still very

necessary in the places that they live. >> reporter: absolutely. they say the covered jurisdictions have a long history. there is bailout condition. if you prove you haven't had problems for ten years or reports of discrimination or problems from minority voters you can bail out. the bailout option is there. you should exercise that. folks upholding voting rights act are trying to convince this is very necessary law. this is the attorney's general brief. congress acts at the zenith of its constitutional authority when it enforces the guaranties of 14th and 15th amendment to enact legislation to protect citizens from racial discrimination and voting as it has with section 5. there was a recent case a few years act which the justices touched on these issues seeming to open the door for the possibility that section 5 may be done away with. we'll have to see. i predict this will be a very, very close vote when they eventually get to it, martha. martha: we'll watch it closely as i know you will, shannon. thank you very much.

bill: we've got breaking news now. wendell goler confirming the president will meet with four top congressional leeders on friday. that is the first of march, two days from now. that means the sequester will have started to settle in to some degree or another. mitch mcconnell's saying we'll get together and we'll talk but as for more revenues, tax dollars, you can forget about that. that is the premise, the foundation for this meeting that happens on friday at the white house. two days away now. thank you, wendell. martha? martha: well it has slammed parts of america's heartland twice in one week, dumping up to a foot of snow in some areas and getting bitter cold out there. now this monster storm we understand is on the move again. we'll tell you where it is headed now. bill: a family of four missing in the pacific or are they? forced to abandon their sailboat after taking on water, or did they? was a call of distress just a hoax? >> coast guard, coast guard, we are abandoning ship.

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bill: so extreme weather alert now. this powerful winter storm slamming parts of the midwest taking aim at another large section of the country. this thing has been on the move. from wisconsin more than a foot of snow on the ground now. the storm is on the move yet again. steve brown is live in chicago. in this storm the big problem is how heavy the

snow is right, steve? >> absolutely. i'm not a meteorologist, janice dean or maria molina or rick reichmuth, when snowballs are that easy to make by reaching down to grab them you know there is lot of moisture in the snow and it causes a lot of havoc. let's start with the snow. it makes it much slippery and heavier and harder to move. snow plows on occasion found themselves in the ditch. also trees that collect that snow, those branches start to bend and sometimes break. it takes out power lines. that's a scenario we're taking a look at in michigan right now, particularly southeast michigan. then the other portion of havoc of heavy snow is when the roof may actually fall in. talk to a couple of people who experienced it. >> look out. >> we heard something sounded like thunder or a big clap and we knew it wasn't raining. my husband went out and

looked out the backside of the lanai. oh my. get our son up. the wall is falling in. >> i saw a little portion of the wall that dropped and i could see inside the other buildings. when i went out and looked over the wall, it was like just a big ol' huge salad bowl. and that's when i realized, wow, we got to get out of there. >> reporter: now for the folks in the northeast portion of the united states, this storm is headed your way. and it is projected to dump even more snow. so the danger of that heavy snow is magnified in if you live in new york, new england or along the atlantic coast. bill: we had wind earlier today. it has to be a mess for travelers. how does it go over there in. >> reporter: it is. as o'hare, 700 flights affected, canceled, delayed, what have you. same sort of story going on

right now with a lot of heavy snow and it is hard to move around. imagine a plane trying to gather speed for a takeoff there the other problem is this. we'll ask my photographer to pan out to the top of the ibm and trump tower. you have a low cloud ceiling you can't see the top of the trump tower in chicago. that low cloud ceiling means at a lot of airports, particularly o'hare, we have ground stops going on. that is major headache for any kind of traveler, until that lifts then you can't even move traffic in or out. if you can it moves really slowly. between the weather and cloud sealing it will be difficult for air traffic flowing midwest to east today. bill: big ripple effect out of o'hare too, our nation's second busiest. thank you, steve brown. it is late february in chicago. martha: all right. we've got breaking news just happening moments ago. we have learned that the president says he will meet with the four top congressional leaders on friday at the white house. they're going to talk of course about this sequester crunch.

republicans have been calling for the president top stop what they have said is a campaign road show and come back to washington. so the president is doing just that. here is the president though on the road yesterday in virginia. >> nobody is asking them to raise income tax rates. all we're asking is to consider closing tax loopholes and deductions that the speaker of the house, john boehner, said he was willing to do just a few months ago. he said there were a bunch of loopholes and deductions can i could close. said you could raise 800 billion, a trillion dollars by closing loopholes. we're not even asking for that much. all we're asking is that they close loopholes for the well-off and the well-connected. martha: those closing of loopholes boehner intended to be instead of the tax hike, tax rate increase. so that was a one or the other deal. and they ended up with, with the tax rate hike. tucker carlson joins me now, editor of "the daily caller".

alan colmes, host of the "alan colmes radio show". both are fox news contributors. alan, start with you, what do you think of the meeting that will take place on friday at the white house. >> i'm really grad. i would like to see both united states stop sniping at each other. both are doing it. making snarky comments. the mcconnell calling it the president's sequester which is not really accurate. president going after congressional leaders. i hope they will sit down and working is out. they shouldn't leave the room, lock the doors until they come out of there with an agreement. martha: tucker, what do you think?. >> i don't think this is about economics. i think it is about politics and the president to request to end income inequality. nobody thinking closing loopholes for the rich will not balance the budget or eliminate the debt. he says this is about the republicans protecting the rich. i think republicans might get a lot out of being very specific about the cuts they want the president to effect. they can give him authority to make targeted cuts, $85

billion worth. here is the authority and here are the $85 billion worth of programs you want to cut. they can win the debate but they have to make the point first. martha: if we go into the room with four top leaders we should go in with specific ideas what the republicans suggested cuts are to the budget. we heard from mitch mcconnell moments after this meeting was announced. that is fine. we'll go in there and we'll talk. there will not be any new tax revenue increases. alan, what about this issue. what happened back when, before the sequester kicked in, was that, boehner offered a deal. it was called the grand bargain. the way it has been reported that the president wanted to tack on 400 billion in increased tax hikes at that moment. boehner walked out of the room. no, we're not going to do that. we had a deal. we'll not go with more tax hikes. we got to the point of the sequester coming about. it was said, let's do 800 billion in that area in closing tax loopholes. but the president said no.

he really wanted tax rate hikes. now is he coming back to get the whole ball of wax. they are saying no. >> is it really tax rate hike or doing away with the bush tax cuts for the top 2%? are we looking at another hike or closing loopholes? martha: people across the board are paying more in taxes we know that. >> is it really a hike or really honoring a sunset agreement that happened years ago. martha: ask anybody who has a paycheck. >> perception is reality. martha: per seem is reality. less money your wallet. >> reality is reality. if you wind up paying more to the irs in april, that is tax hike. the question is what is the purpose of this? again there is no economist i think in the world who would look at the president's proposal say this is going to balance the federal budget because it is just not. it is not about. it is about crushing one end in order to make it a more level playing field. if you're for that celebrate it. don't pretend it is

economic. >> the president says, republicans are saying we want to see spending cuts. we want to see real spending cuts. that's what they're saying. white house said we already gave you that. we put the spending cuts out there. critics say, well, not really, when you look what it is sort of money that isn't going to be spent in iraq and afghanistan wars. it is not real spending cuts. goes back and forth. the american people look at it. you know what? the heck with all of you. they're sick and tired of it alan. >> if you look at polls, "washington post" poll 67% say republicans are losing argument on spending. there is more political capital on the left. democrats have more political capital right now. they have done a better job selling their position to the american people as of right now. martha: yeah. tucker, you hit on that briefly before. but that's true. they are winning this argument. >> well they are but, it wouldn't be hard for the republicans to turn this around. make one simple case. martha: why can't they then? why can't they? >> the president says sequestration is stupid,

because they're indiscriminate point. that is good point actually. they are stupid. here is the discretion to make targeted cuts. the white house says we don't want to make discretion for targeted cuts. the simple question, why wouldn't you want that? why can't you use that? because they get a lot of political benefit. martha: mitch mcconnell says the president should use his discretion because these cuts are stupid as tucker was saying. so you guys pick the things really worth cutting. why wouldn't they do that? >> i frankly hope they come out with an agreement on friday where the president can use his discretion with everybody agreeing that's okay. on the other hand you got in the house, you've got, boehner saying let the senate do it. get off their posterior to clean up his language. let the white house do it. i don't want to do it anymore. martha: they put out budgets that you do it. what more can we do. >> that is hurting the republican argument when they see a lack of leadership on that score. martha: could be. gentlemen, always a pleasure. see you guys later. tucker, alan. bill: disturbing new warnings about homegrown terror.

the former cia director says the biggest threat from al qaeda is yet to come? general michael hayden is live today on that. martha: look at this. unsportsmanlike conduct. watch the coach's foot. he just trips that little kid. two of them fell down. is that good coaching? please. we'll be right back all right that's a fifth-floor problem... ok.

ask. martha: oh, boy. a peewee hockey coach find himself in big trouble this morning. it all started when two hockey teams in british columbia, watch this, here comes the coach. handshake after the game. you know how this goes. puts his leg out and trips the two kids. he looks right at him. he knows exactly where that came from. 10-year-old and 1-year-old went down face first. the coach pleaded guilty on one count of assault. this is normal happening in hockey, right? they sentenced him to 15 days in jail for assault charges. bill: really? martha: yeah. bill: wow! looked like

tallest player on other team. took down two of them. martha: oh, my gosh. bill: i imagine he lost. martha: always somebody taking video. bill: we now know who will be at this meeting at the white house on friday. boehner, mcconnell, reid and pelosi. all four meeting with the president at 11th, past the 11th, got to be 1th hour on friday. with me a senator who gave the government a check for $600,000 with money he saved from his own office budget annually. republican senator rand paul. good morning to you. how are you? >> very good. bill: what is friday about, do you think? >> i wish it were about cutting some spending. instead i think it will be bellyaching about slowing down the rate of growth of spending. i'm getting kind of annoyed at the president lining up local police officers and saying their jobs will be lost when everybody knows their salaries are paid by local taxes. and we presented the president with something, a see kester plan with know

layoffs. i don't rehire people who retire from government. we pay federal workers the sail as private workers. that pays for most of the sequester. bill: i heard you talk about that. you were talking with us two weeks about that very idea. it hasn't gone anywhere yet. do you expect it to? >> we'll try to make it one of the all turntives. it is always a fight around here to see if they let you have a vote on your alternative. i presented it to my caucus. i'm also presenting it as anment to whatever they come up with for thursday or friday and --. bill: have you gotten a sniff of democratic support on that yet? >> we haven't presented it to the other side yet. but you would think, there are fairly easy solutions. we don't rehire people. pay federal workers the same as private workers. we cut their travel by 25%. and we say there has to be competitive bidding. the problem is many democrats don't like competitive bidding because they like to pay federal workers union scale instead of what the competitive wage is.

so that could be a problem. bill: you find so much savings in these travel budgets. that is becoming more and more clear. but you save $600,000 out of an annual budget of 3.5 million. what did you do? >> we saved it by watching every penny. we watched how many people we hire. we had a few people retire or leave for other jobs. we didn't replace them. we also watch what we spend on ink cartridges, computer, travel budget. we watch a host of things. we watch it as if it were our own money. we have a bill that would have this go throughout owl of government. we would give civil servants bonuses based on how much savings they find in their own budget. bill: that's novel. wonder if that goes anywhere, huh? actually giving 16.6 trillion. mick mulvaney, republican south carolina, saved 160,000 in the house budget which is less than yours on the understand senate side

but still bite sizable. one more question here, senator, if i could. you helped lead the charge publicly against chuck hagel. yet he you voted to confirm him as defense secretary. he was sworn two hours ago at the pentagon. why the vote to favor him? >> i filibuster ited him white -- twice because i wanted more information. when republicans stick together we could get information. i was disappointed several on my side after they filibustered him up immediately announced they wouldn't continue the filibuster so we never got the information. i'm the same way on brennan. i want more information on drone strikes in america. on final passage though i take the position that the president does have some leeway and some prerogative who he appoints to political appointees. so i would like to get as much information as can. i will stick with the party, if the party will stick together to get more information. in the end i voted for john kerry also although i agree

with almost nothing that john kerry represents. bill: will secretary hagel be a good and satisfactory defense secretary in your view? >> you know, i don't really know. there are many libertarian reasons not to be excited about a guy who voted for the iraq war, voted for the patriot act, is in favor of a national draft. but there is also reasons from a conservative perspective not to be happy. i don't know what will happen. i do think though he is open to the fact that we will have to save some money in the military and i am open to that also. bill: senator, thank you for your time. a lot to talk about. we'll continue our discussions soon. rand paul there from capitol hill. martha? martha: a family of four said to be missing at sea after they were forced to abandon their sailboat. why the coast guard is calling off the search for this family.

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♪ . bill: rolling stones. mick is going strong. mick jagger, keith richards, marking a milestone a small tour later in the year. they will make millions off that baby. the rock and roll hall of fame in cleveland celebrating the stones and the music they made. opening an exhibit there on memorial day, taking up two floors. a lot to cover with these guys. martha: something fun to do on memorial day, bill. how about this story, folks. it all started with a may-day call from a california family believed to be stranded at sea. apparently they were trapped about 65 miles off pillar point in half moon bay. their sailboat they claimed quickly was taking on water. they were going to abandon ship. here is the 911 call. listen. >> coast guard, coast guard. we are abandoning ship. this is --

[inaudible] we are abandoning ship. martha: that was it. we are charm blow. we are abandoning ship. after employing dozens of crews and launching an intense air and sea search for this family who believed to have a small child and cousin with them, who knows where all that came from, the coast guard are looking to whether or not this is big hoax. we have a former nypd detective and president of alba investigations. obviously if you get the call they will go out and search. that's what they dot. >> they had an extensive search but not only extensive but expensive. you dot searches, going out 60 miles out there, on kids and little kids and but you know, what about that call, when you have your kids in and 4-year-old and you're going talk about abandoning ship in that tone of voice, like relax. he was on the radio for about an hour, giving out messages. never identified himself, saying his gps doesn't work. electronics don't work.

nothing works on the boat. then he says okay, only thing you understand he is abandoning ship. martha: right away, it struck them as odd that nobody in their related family or, said, that is our children, that is my son, that is his wife, you know. the cousin, no, no outside family coming. that's odd. normally you will have people rushing to the scene to try to find them. >> it is. the mere fact the coast guard called off the search, i'm sure they have a boat looking, that says a lot. i'm sure they're looking into criminal investigation if this is so. what more of a call you get with kids and family, everybody would go look for something. martha: cruel way to pull off a hoax. think about pulling a fire alarm in a building, right? that draws fire engrins there. this takes that to a whole another level. you have choppers in the sky. we had a situation in new jersey last year and the officials there said it cost $318,000. they had four choppers, two

rescue boats out there. that was a hoax said to have 21 people on board. this is some video we had from that day. people have done time for this. they have caught people and done serious time. >> when i think of a hoax, what is the reason for the hoax? and really is that a corridor to bring drugs or smuggling through there. have the attention of everybody there. martha: oh, there's a thought. >> another thought of course is the last one could this be inside job, just to see how it is to go, somebody calling, they want a little action and maybe make that call and be part of that whole system? so there's a plenty of reasons why they're going to look into that. the reason they put this guy's voice on to see if anybody knows him one. martha: identify him. >> identify him two, see who the heck is this. martha: let's hope they catch him. a huge waste of time and money and resources. that may have another alternative plan. >> thanks for fog me. martha: we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back with more so i used my citi thankyou card to pick up some accessories. a new belt.

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martha: this is the first act of

the sequester, the release ef many jailed illegal immigrants, and that has critics saying it's a move that is designed to ril rile folks up and it didn't need to happen. >> this is very hard for me to believe that they can't find cuts elsewhere in their agency. i frankly think this is outrageous. i'm looking for more facts, but i can't believe that they can't find the kind of savings out of that department sort of letting criminals go free. martha: interesting point. brand-new hour starts now of "america's newsroom." good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. the white house says the first move the sequester is to allow thousands of illegal immigrants jailed in america to go free, claiming the cuts would mean fewer border security agents and less money to house detained illegal immigrants. the feds have already released a couple of hundred in the state of arizona. martha: they said they had to do

that as a maneuver before everything kicked in. is this practical or politics? william la jeunesse is live in possible average. what is ohio sayin i.c.e. saying about this. >> reporter: they say this is the best use of resources. there might be another explanation. latino groups have been pressuring the agency to provide alternatives to jail already, hapb and the sequester may provide a cover for them to do that. speaker boehner says it's a square tactic. the obama administration is releasing untold numbers of illegal immigrants from jails around the country. ice holds 32 shou immigrants. the agenc agent agency refuses to say how many will be released. but in arizona 300 are already out. >> theft, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, all of those

crimes, and i.c.e. has not been forthcoming. this is done under the cloak of secrecy. we only found out because a dozen i.c.e. agents and zoom visors called me directly and said, sheriff i can't believe we are doing this. >> reporter: they worry about the felons who are on the loose, they have no family, money, will recommit crimes and disappear. martha: where shall they supposeare they supposed to go when they get out. >> reporter: they don't necessarily have family there or homes they can go to. now, i.c.e. did tell us that the illegal immigrants while free are not supposed to go anywhere, they are required to call in periodically and some could be wearing and ankle i will bracelet. they call it supervised release. critics calm it kafpl and release which previously allowed millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the country for

decades. they were given dates to show up in court, necessity never showed. the bush administration began building more jails and repatriating people on airplanes. if you can't afford to hold them in jail you definitely can't afford to go find them. martha: thank you very much. bill: we are also getting reaction now from the arizona governor jan brewer, she says quote i'm appalled to learn the u.s. department of home of land security has begun to release hundreds of illegal aliens from custody. she continues this represents a return to exactly the kind of catch and release procedures that have long made a mock reef our country's immigration system end quote. martha: a little background on the immigration and customs enforcement system known as i.c.e. it is the second largest investigative agency in the federal government. they have more than 20,000 employees and officers in all 50 states and 47 foreign countries as well. an annual budget of more than

$5.7 billion. bill: an emotional farewell earlier today for pope benedict the xvi in vatican city. [applause] a hundred and 50,000 filling sa*eut peter's square. the leader of the world's over one billion catholic retires, the first pope to do so in some 600 years. amy kellogg is live at the vatican. talk about how the crowd reacted to them today and he in turn with the crowd. >> reporter: yeah, bill, it was a beautiful day here in rome and on st. peter's square, there was a very blue sky and it was quite moving to watch pope benedict the xvi make the rounds in his popemobile, looking slightly stupid, immaculate lely,

because it was a bit chilly. his face looked tranquil and somewhat emotional and he smiled as he tkpwhraoete greeted the people out there. some of the faith fall wanted to thank him even if they couldn't actually speak directly too him. they felt their prepbs was a presence was an act of thanks. others wanted to receive a blessing. others were curious because this is a global event, a historic event, a pope resigning in this way. i spoke to an american priest, someone from portland, oregon about pope benedict the xvi and here is what he had to say. >> he told me through his scholarship in becoming a better friend of jesus christ with his books. i've appreciated that. high. going to miss him a lot. i've enjoyed my time with him at world youth day here in rome. his holiness has helped me become a better priest. >> reporter: as i looked at the

pontiff i wasn't alone wondering what was on his mind as this morning progressed. bill: what happens next, amy? what do we understand the procedure is here? >> reporter: okay, well first of all, especially dramatic this day because it may be the last time, barring a two photo ops that we ever see pope benedict the xvi. he will be pope emeritus after he leaves office tomorrow. if he does go into seclusion as he promised he will we may not lay eyes on him again. the college of cardinals get going officially march 4th but there will be pre college meetings and then they will set a date for the conclave, which is the process by which the cardinals elect a new hope. that will probably be the 8th, the 10th of march, and they will cast a few balance lots every day until a new pope is elect. we will see black smoke each time there is a failed ballot. when we see the white smoke over the vatican, bill, we will know that there is a new pope. bill: we await that.

amy kellogg live in rome, italy for us today. martha: now begins the process of select -lg benedict's replacement, that will be the job of the college of cardinals of course. all the cardinals unthe age of 80 have the right to vote for the next pope in the conclave. the average aim of electors is 72 years old right now. there are 117 cardinals who will take part. we know that mope de pope benedict was very busy aeu appointing cardinals. he filled th the ranks who will pick the next pope. bill: pope benedict the xvi was one of only 17 church men to be elected bishop of rome between the ages of 71 and 80. there have been only three popes under the age of 25. the last time that happened more than a thousand years ago. and there has been three popes -- there have been three popes over the age of 08. a bit later this hour skwraop

hour, joan lewis is here a person who has worked with the vatican for over a decade. martha: back to this story, extreme weather. a deadly winter storm is on the move right now driving blizzards, paralyzing some of the midwest states. it is now tracking east we are told and in missouri the department of transportation has issued a rare no travel advisory. simply telling everybody that they should stay off the roads, except in the case of a dire emergency. meteorologist maria molina is live in our fox extreme weather center with more on this this morning. >> reporter: that's very good advice for people across sections of the central plains and even across parts of new england today. you could be looking at over a foot of snow along some of the higher elevation of the state of new hampshire and across sections of the state of maine. please be safe out here. this storm system has headed eastbound, it has weakened a little bit but it is a massive storm. we are seeing snow coming down across portions of kansas and

missouri and snow coming down right now across sections of southern maine. a wide-spread area impacted by the storm and we've had to deal with areas of heavy rain across the new york city area throughout the overnight hours and early this morning. that's been causing delays at the airports. winter storm warnings in new york, vermont, new hampshire, maine, the rain still coming down, long island, connecticut, up into eastern sections of massachusetts. like i mentioned we've been seeing the delays. it has got even a little bit better in new york city's jfk airport. it was averaging over an hour, now about 30-minute delays as well in the city of philadelphia. a lot of snow, 6 to 12 inches forecast along section of upstate new york through sections of maine. martha: in all the right places for the ski places, thank you very much. bill: there is dramatic new video of a deadly hot air balloon crash, the worst we've seen in 20 years. we'll talk to an expert in a moment about what could have

gone wrong for these people. martha: a probasketball game check this out turns into an all-out brawl. weave have the video of what happened after that. bill: disturbing new warnings about homegrown terrorism, the enemy within. former kreurbgs a director general michael haydeness here to talk about this. >> this is not about targeting american or american groups. this is about being aware of what americans are targeted by al-qaida. [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, writing the next chapter for the rx and lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection. progress-oh! [ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying "progress-oh!"

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martha: new warnings from former cis general michael hayden after an investigator report shows that home-grown terror is on the rise. watch this. >> newt attacks against the american homeland will be less well organized, less complex, less likely to succeed, less lethal, even if they do

succeed. they are just going to be more numerous, and i think i would add and more likely to be conducted by citizens or long-term residents of the united states. martha: general michael hayden joins me now, a principal at the churdoff group as well. good to have you here. >> thank you. martha: this is a report that came out of britain and it's very disturbing in terms of who it shows and in terms of who the future terrorist is that might hit us at home. tell bus that. >> sure, very scholarly report, great discipline, very well done. our british friend in the henry jackson so side looked at the court records of those convicted of terrorism in the united states since the mid 1990s, and al-qaida terrorism. and the conclusions were surprising. over half of these individuals were american citizens. 60% of them had at least a college degree. 60% of them were working or in

school at the time of their act, at the time of their arrest. and about 25% of them were actually converts to islam. this kind of cuts against the grain of the general impression with regard to the domestic threat, with regard to the selfradicalized threat. in that sense it's really important information. martha: you're describing these people as sort of established in this country to some extent. >> right, successful. martha: not wandering and susceptible and vulnerable to someone swaying them into doing something. very deliberate and determined. how do we find these people and stop them from doing what they want to pull off? >> that's why this report is so very important. we have large ethic communities, we called them heritage communities when i was at cia in dearborn, michigan, or minneapolis, saint paul or fremont, california. and these folks could be made to be more suspicious of their own government by how we go about

doing what you just described. now with this data, we can be more precise, we can be more focused we have a deeper understanding of the group for whom the al-qaida message seems more, rather than less likely to stick. again, i mean, the overall impression is so many of these americans have nothing to do with the al-qaida movement, but now we've got a better understanding of where that message might have some resonance and that's very important. martha: you look at the hit on ala keurbgs and h aki and he has been an inspiration to so many people. and hasan, and fasad in time stair and the whole list of them. the argument is in some cases that the hits on these people inch sphaoeurs a new breed of them. what do you think about that? >> the first thing we have to be very clear about that you and i are talking about this today, martha is a reflection of

counterterrorism success. what it is al-qaida wanted to do that, that complex, high casualty attack against an iconic target they are almost incapable of doing now. we are looking at these lower order threats. the first thing to keep in mind is we are actually safer than we used to be. and now we need to look at these residual threats without changing our dna, as a free and as a welcoming society. those are actually great strengths in the war against terrorism. martha: you know, but that opens up this whole can of worms of privacy, and how you go after these people. i know you have spent a lot of time, you know, thinking about this. working on it when you were in the administration. look at nadal hasan, that wasn't even categorized at fort hood as a terrorist attack regardless that the writing many would say was very much on the wall. the other issue now are we going to have drone sru surveillance across the country looking for americans who are connect towed

this organization who want to do us harm? >> to fort hood was a terrorist attack so matter what some people choose to describe it as. this today the ace very important because it allows us to address the problem without prejudice and without political correctness. as a professional intelligence officer that is the space you really want to be in. martha: what about the future? i mean you look at the posture, the new administration, john brennan likely according to most folks, and you say you think he'll be confirmed, correct. >> right, right. martha: what kind of director do you think he will be and how will he deal with this threat snow has spoken of this as well. >> i think john will be fine as director. the interesting thing for me is the whole new team. when you compare secretary hagel, secretary kerry, director brennan with the folks that they are replacing, clinton, petraeus, gates, panetta, i think the new team actually thinks like the president, maybe

even more than the president does, and would not be as inclined to push back against some of the president's natural instincts. martha: does that concern you? >> it does, no, it really does because you do want that tension between powerful cabinet officials and the white house, but i think the new team will be more inclined to cut the budget deeper, go with lighter footprints, withdraw from afghanistan more rapidly, be more reluctant to engage in difficult situations abroad and morey lie on things below the surface like covert action. now, martha, in some circumstances they may be the right decisions, but overall i think this group will be less inclined to press back against the president's personal instincts. martha: those are some serious concerns would i say. >> yeah. martha: general, thank you very much. always a pleasure to have you with us, sir, we'll s you soon. >> thank you. bill: he's been there and in that ring so often. the president will meet with congressional leadership on friday. this after speaker boehner tells the senate to get off it's

keister. democratic senator ben carden is here live. he will address that comment for you in moments. martha: such an awful tragedy, people are asking what caused this hot air balloon to explode and crash, and could it have been? awful tragedy. what is behind it?

martha: we've got new information in that shootout in the las vegas strip, on the strip i should say that left three people dead last week. police are now identifying a woman as a person of interest in this. they believe that she was inside the suv with suspected gunman ammar harris when the shots were fired. they say she is not considered a suspect but authorities are looking to speak with her.

anybody who recognizes this woman, or thinks they have any information about how the police can contact her, the las vegas police would like to speak to you. bill: serious, dramatic new video of a deadly balloon crash over luxor, egypt. we will show it to you one time. plumes of smoke as the balloon catches fire midair plunging more and thousand neat to the ground. 19 tourists on board are dead. incredibly three people did survive that. clive bailey the hot air balloon pilot with me now. sir good day to you. you come to us by way of england in the soupb of bristol. you call this form of aviation the safest type of travel we have in the world. >> it's certainly in the uk it's the safest form of aviation, yes. bill: i apologize nor the interruption. i just wanted to make a point here that this happened while the balloon was descending, so this was at the end of their 45-minute or hour tour over

luxor, egypt. i would imagine that the most difficult time is when you take off and when you land. so when you land what possibly could go wrong that would result in this. clive? >> well, i think it's the same as any aviation take offs and landings are the critical element of it and great care is taken on both of those particular parts of the flight. i think one of the most dangerous things for a hot air balloon in the landing phase is power line strikes and i don't know whether this is the cause of that. that would just be speculation, but that is one of the things that can cause problems. bill: how often is it that we see a problem like this? >> well it's very rare that we have fatalities on who the air balloons. they are incredibly well engineered. they are designed to a very high spec and equipment failure is a very rare thing. i think like a lot of aviation things many of these instances, not just hot air balloons are generally down to a pilot error but not just one thing, an

accident is one or two, or maybe three things that align that cause the accident. bill: clive, are there international rules for certification? would the rules in england be the same in the u.s. as they would be in egypt? >> i think certainly i can speak on behalf of the uk that we have one of the toughest set of rules concerning hot air balloons, and i've just been out through albuquerque last year and spent two weeks out there and i know the rules in the u.s. are very tough as well. and they should be. accidents like this are something none of us want but they do happen unfortunately not just in balloons but in all sorts of sports. bill: in the u.s. if you go back 48 hours, 1964, you have 760 hot air balloon accidents that were even investigated. that is an amazingly safe hobby, or sports for some people. and you just wonder if you're

coming down in an area of luxor, egypt, where you're going up and coming down every day, and satisfying the many tourists who come from all over the world, that you would know where the power lines were, and so you wonder what would happen in an event like this. again, this is all theory because we don't have facts yet. but maybe the wind changes? maybe the amount of equipment you have on board, maybe that changes? what would be the factors in there, clive. >> well i think there are several things, the most obvious one would be that the pilot just didn't see power lines. we don't actually know if this was caused by pour lines. it could be a wind change. it can be quite warm on the surface and term malconditions can set up fairly quickly in places like egypt, africa, et cetera where the direction of the balloon ask change very quickly. bill: clive, thank you. he flies these aircrafts and says it's the safest type of aviation you can find anywhere.

thank you for your time, sir, from bristol, england. >> thank you, bill. martha: a big day is coming and perhaps a time of change for the catholic church. pope benedict thanking a massive crowd this morning in st. peter's square. it was his final papal audience. now thoughts turning to the next steps for the billion strong in the united states' catholic church and the election of a new pope. a vatican expert who is terrific on this subject coming up next. bill: there is new reaction to the tough talk from the house speaker john boehner for senate democrats, a democratic senator is here to respond to all that in a moment. martha: speaking of talking tough, remember this lady the bronzed mom was accused of taking her child to a tanning booth? look at her face. not in trouble with the law any more, though. she is getting into it with the media. >> my daughter never tans. are you scare?

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maryland democratic senator ben cardin on the finance committee back with us on "america's newsroom." how are you doing, senator, good morning to you. >> bill, good to be with you. bill: what wow say to the house speaker on that? >> first of all, bill the senate will be voting on a balanced proposal today to substitute foresee questions station. sequestration is bad for our country and economy. it should be avoided. we will have a balanced approach to deal with it that includes not only revenues but also spending cuts in a way that achieves the deficit, in a way that is rational, rather than these irrational across the board cuts. bill: the way it is right now, i mean these cuts are going to happen or i guess the initiation for the cuts will begin. what is your expectation in the month of march? how will we even know that the cuts are in effect? >> that's a good question because its not really a cliff it's more of a slope. i think you'll see it, there has already been an effect. i met with small business leaders from maryland on monday and they told me they are not

letting contracts, they are not hiring people, they are not doing what they normally do. you'll see a slow down in our economy. you'll see services that will be delayed, whether it's calling to find out about your social security check or whether it is standing in a longer line as you go through the airports. you'll feel it. but the most important impact will be on our economy, and this is avoidable. what we need is democrats and republicans sitting down and working out an agreement, that's what we should be doing. bill: we are going to take note of that and we are going to notice that in the month of march and april if there is no further deal as to whether or not that is the case. i know you'll be watching too. would you agree we have have a spending problem? >> absolutely. we have a deficit problem. the deficit needs to be solved by reducing spending. we've already done this on the discretionary side. i agree with some of our republican friends we need to take a look at mandatory spending, take a look at healthcare, absolutely we have to deal with that. bill: you agree that the deficit is a problem and the debt is a problem too, right so we are in agreement on all that.

>> yes. bill: why then would it be that folks are trying to save 2-cents on the dollar, which is pretty much what this sequester amounts to? >> well 2-cents on the dollar overall budget, but on the large mart of the budget is exempt from any of these cuts, so it's concentrated on a very small part of our budget which has already gone through significant reductions. bill: you're right about that. but you know within even your own budget, you know, nor the senate office thafor the senate office you run in washington, you know you can figure out a way to cut. i hear ceo's, if our board came to us and said you need to save 2% in the next calendar year theldee be kicking their heels up, they'd be like 2%, we can do that, that is easy. >> the 2% is on less than half of the budget. we've already done those cuts. what we need to do is get our mandatory spending under control. there are some sensible cuts that we can make in spending, we need to do it, but we need to do it in a rational way not an

irrational across the board cut that exempts most of government spending from the reductions. bill: do you think it's acceptable, senator, for the democrats on that side of the hill to not produce a budget for more than four years? what is your view on that? >> well, we had the affect of a budget because of the agreement we reached on the debt ceiling increase but we should be a budget. i agree with you and i think you're going to find that in the next couple of weeks we will be voting on a budget on the floor of the united states senate. i've certainly urged our leadership to bring up a budget, i think we should. bill: what explains why it hasn't happened, then? >> i think as a pragmatic answer to that is that because we hat summit agreement on the scope of how much we could spend, we imposed spending caps, that acted as instructions to the appropriations committee. but i agree i think we should do a regular budget in regular order. bill: a lot of people think you were just hiding your cards and not showing your hand, because of politics, is there truth to

that? >> i tell you i got elected to the senate to make decision. i'm ready to vote. i think we should take up issues and let the senate do what it does, a flee and open debate. bill: i appreciate you coming on today. we will stay in touch with you on your office. ben cardin a democrat out of maryland. if others think by you by golly there could be many more deals in the near future, but washington is the way it is at the moment. thank you, senator, we'll talk about. ben cardin from maryland. martha: you remember the new jersey mom who was accused of putting her today daughter in a tanning bed? she is lashing out at critics after a grand jury refused to indict her on any charges. >> this world did in this past year made a mockery of me i. like to tan, i don't think that's a crime and i'm still going to tan. my daughter never tans. are you square? my daughter --

>> your daughter -- >> it's over w who just said daughter. you get the -- [bleep] out of here. martha: she is not holding back she likes to tan, what is wrong with that. leave the woman alone. she is contemplating a woman to rainy overcast london but she can still tan the way shy gets tan so she is okay with that. bill: our apologies to all the truck drivers out there, that's what we get. there is breaking news right now, the u.s. secretary of defense, brand-new on the of 8:30 this morning, that is chuck hagel talking to his new colleagues at pentagon the form erpl senator sworn in earlier today confirmed by the senate yesterday in the closes vote we have seen in the history of the u.s. senate over defense secretary. on the job. the president accused of miss using his power. a growing number of attorneys general say he is crossing the line. is that true? is that the case? texas attorney general greg abbott weighs in on that. martha: a final farewell to the

faithful, pope benedict the xvi addresses a huge audience at st. peters square today, amazing pictures coming out of the vatican. what is next for the catholic church? we're going to talk about that. bill: check it out. what led to this basketball brawl? this thing started and it went on and on and on. >> this is really out of hand over here, owe, no. clean this up. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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[ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. bill: here it is now the video of this on court brawl spilling into the crowd at an nba gauge. watch under the basket, positions for a rebound turning into a shoving match. then a full-on fight between the golden state wear yores and the indiana pacers. the coaches try to keep the bench, not here. ten players involved. >> let's clean this up, fellows. let's clean this up. get this back on the floor. bill: it's going to take a while to clean that up. one player from indiana was

ejected, one player. the nba is reviewing this and fines and suspensions are suspected. pacers won the game against golden state. martha: all right. well pope benedict the xvi giving his emotional final farewell in st. peter's square this morning addressing thousands of people who gathered there before his last day as leader of the roman catholic church. pope benedict is the first pope in 600 years to step down. so what does the future bring? that becomes the big question after today. joined by joan lewis, in the rome bureau, the rome bureau chief for the eternal words television network. joan, welcome back to the show, great to have you with us this morning. i'd like to ask you a little bit, the pope acknowledged in many ways that there were issues, that there were difficulties when he was pope. where do you think his decision leaves us in terms of what the

important priorities are for the church to tackle now? >> i think, martha, that you're going to have the cardinals, many of whom are in rome, a huge number were at the audience today, about 80 or so cardinals. you're going to have the cardinals looking at everything that has surfaced in the last eight months or last eight years in this pontificate that might be as the pope said might have caused agitated waters. so they are going to look at administrative issues, there is a course a lot of talk of reforming, that's been talk for probably a couple hundred years and you're going to look at some of the sensitive issues which are going to have to be treated. the future poerpbgs the cardinalpope, the karld tphals who wilcardinals who will vote on this person, and they will discuss this when they start

their congregations, probably the 4th of march, they will talk about all of these issues and the issues at hand might lead them to choose the next pope. do they want an administrator who is going to be real good at running? do they want a really saintly man, of course they do. a man of great fat faith who is also a pastor. all of these problems they are going to look at who will best be able to handle them with our help. martha: so, true. you look at this vati leaks scandal as it has been called and all of the discussion that pope benedict alluded to about the difficulties within the vatican. you look for somebody i would imagine who is a good manager, and, you know, to put it in practical terms and also as you say a good pastor. because when you look around the world you have percent crucial of underground churches in china, in iran, very pressing global issues that face the church right now and also the creep of secularism which i know

was a great concern to pope benedict. where do you think that leaves us in terms of choices? >> he talked about certainly the secula sec secularism, or relative is eupl the first day he was hope. you'll have to have the new cardinals together with him really look at plans how to come path the secularism which is hugely on the rise in european long before probably was even in the united states. the decline of the christian faith in europe is a huge thing. and, you know, look at our own country, we are on the forefront of fighting for religious freedom. if you look at the hhs mandate, without going into all of that you have the u.s. bishops conference and other religions joining us in this fight for religious freedom, which our country was founded on. martha: just to go back to pope benedict to a moment before i leave you, interesting that he'll be wearing mexican loafers now, and i think that it's not

without intent that they have put out that piece of information, right? >> oh, i think it's great, because i have to say the journalists for days, we had questions for ten days, what will he wear, what will he be called, et cetera he'll be in his might cassic, there will not be that little cape like mosetta. and the shoes, red is identified with the pope. the fact that eye he's decided to wear brown, that he got in mexico. he found them to be very, very comfortable and so that's what he's going to wear. martha: and they will destroy what is known as the fisherman's ring as they do after each pope leaves office, in most cases bypassing away, in this case through retirement. joan, thank you so much. we look forward to talk with you throughout this. many thanks, joan. bill: interesting to hear how some talk about him in retirement too. perhaps we will never see him at some point again. he talked a lot about privacy today, and you wonder if that's what he's after right now.

martha: he said that god was calling him to a private life of appraiser an prayer and meditation. we'll see whether or not we get to lay eyes on him again. bill: good note on the ring to, they crush it. martha: they destroy the ring. bill: 12 minutes before the hour. there has been a deadly great white shark attack and it occurred only 200 miles offshore. now there is a hunt to find the shark. >> he just shout out and next minute we saw him like rolling around, there was blood everywhere on the water.

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martha: a terrible story, a film director was killed in a sha attack off a popular beach in new zealand. adam strange who was an award winning director of short films

was 200 yards after shore when a great white shark attacked him. witnesses say that that shark was not alone. >> the first time it was like one shark, but all of a sudden after five, six minutes after that we saw about like three sharks, all over him, rolling him around. martha: oh, my gosh, this is horrible to witness. police confirm that there were at least through other sharks in the water, and the estimate is that the first one was 14-feet long. there was nothing they could do. bill: this from the u.s. now, about two dozen states participating in the government's medicaid expansion plan. texas, however, has said in the past it is not one of them. here now republican texas attorney general greg abbott to talk about that. welcome back to "america's newsroom." >> thank you, bill, great to be back. bill: are you going to hold the line on that decision or change your mind. >> we are. we've been holding the line ever since we filed the lawsuit challenging the obamacare expansion of healthcare. in the capitol right behind me

we have legislative leaders who are working on expanding medicaid and healthcare in the state of texas by adding both people, by trying to do a better job of taking care of those with disabilities and seniors, but we are doing that within the confines of our own budget. we don't believe the right thing to do is to buy in to this obama care mandated expansion of medicaid and here is why. you have to go back to the supreme court decision that basically said, using my words, that it's like the hotel california, you can check in, but you can never leave, you can never check out, because once states start being a part before the medicaid expansion program, even though it's 100% reimbursement now it will ratchet down to 90%. think about a country with $16 trillion in debt, that reimbursement rate by the feds is going to decrease, meaning that states like texas or whatever who buy into this system will have to use more and more of their state bulge totes pay for the medicaid that will now be mandated from the federal government.

bill: so if i understand it right you're going to manage this by taking more people on to the medicaid roles within the border of texas and not take federal money from washington, simply stated. >> well, slightly different, that is we are going to add to our medicaid rofplts we'll provide those who really need help such as the disabled and elderly but doe so within the confines of our own budgetary resources without accepting both the money from the federal government and the most importantly the strings that come attached to it. bill: i understand that. i got you. what do you think of rick scott, the governor of florida changing his mind? what do you think of chris christie, the governor of new jersey announcing this week that he will take the federal dollars? >> well, i don't know the details of how these other states operate. all i know is that in texas we are going to standby our principle and that is we know the federal government-run programs are a failure and i don't see why we should participate in a program that is like the sinking titanic where all we're doing is readjusting the chairs on the titanic.

medicaid is a broken system, and it shouldn't be expanded, it needs to be reformed. what we are urge -rg the federal government to do is to allow texas and the other states to improve medicaid, to do a better job of it to allow us the flexibility to address the unique needs of the people in our state. bill: i apologize for interrupting you, how does chris christie benefit from this decision in how does rick scott benefit from it? why would they do it? >> reporter: i guess they just feel a dress pratt need for the money from the federal government now without thinking about what is going to happen, two, four and ten years from now when their state pweupblgts are going to be hamstrung by the reduced reimbursement from the federal government that will make it that the states have a harder time addressing the strapbs strapbs needs of the people o transportation needs of the people of their states. bill: thank you very much. martha: there is a big

development kurpbg iran's military program. benjamin netanyahu calling for military gets against iran. big news, folks, a live report from israel at the tomorrow of the hour. this is so sick! i can't believe your mom let you take her car out. this is awesome! whoooo! you're crazy. go faster! go faster! go faster! go faster! no! stop...stop... go(mom) i rais my son to bester! careful... hi, sweetie. hi, mom. (mom) but just to be safe... i got a subaru. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru.